A solid roux, which is generally used for cooking curry, hash, stew, and the like, is made by mixing and heating flour, edible fat, seasoning, and the like, followed by cooling to solidify.
An appropriate heat-resistant and shape-retaining property in a distribution process and good de-molding property in a production process of a solid roux are required for the above-described edible fat. Thus, solid fat which is comparatively hard and has high melting point, such as hydrogenated oil made from lard or beef tallow, or mixed oil thereof, or hydrogenated oil or interesterified oil made from vegetable fat such as palm oil, or mixed oil thereof, has been used as the edible fat.
That is, physical properties required for the solid fat for the solid roux include that: a shape-retaining property is kept even in summer; a liquid oil component does not seep; a phenomenon that a surface of the solid roux whitens like a fungus is less likely to occur during storage; and a good de-molding property after cooling and solidifying in the production of the solid roux.
The following inventions have been disclosed for a fat for solid roux that fulfills the above-described required physical properties.
Patent Document 1 discloses a fat composition for solid roux, which is good in shape-retaining property, melting property, and texture, having low trans fatty acid content in the fat, and showing good de-molding property and little cracking in the production of the roux. This fat composition consists of 90 to 98% by mass of mixed oil of 50 to 90 parts by mass of beef tallow or lard and 10 to 50 parts by mass of fully hydrogenated beef tallow or fully hydrogenated lard, and 2 to 10% by mass of high erucic fully hydrogenated oil. And the fat composition shows more excellent shape-retaining property, melting property, and texture compared with a conventional partially hydrogenated beef tallow or partially hydrogenated lard.
Patent Document 2 relates to an edible processed fat and a food product which are hard to get soft even in summer, hard to solidify even in a refrigerator and excellent in shape retention and foam stability. The edible processed fat includes polyhydric alcohol fatty acid ester containing behenic acid as main constituent fatty acid. The edible processed fat is added into a food product such as curry roux to ensure a food product that is hard to get soft even in summer, hard to solidify even in the refrigerator, and excellent in the shape-retaining property and the foam stability.